Developed nations pledged more than $4 billion over the next three years to finance a program meant to help poor countries protect their forests and slow global warming

An agency monitoring the aid will be up and running before U.N. climate talks start in Cancun, Mexico, later this year, the European Union's climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard said at a conference on deforestation in Oslo.

Germany, France, Norway, the U.S., Britain, Australia and Japan pledged $4 billion to finance REDD Plus through 2012, with Denmark and Sweden adding $73 million more to the effort on Thursday

The new monitoring agency would oversee individual agreements between countries to fight deforestation and educate local populations who live off forests

President Jagdeo (Guyana) and Prime Minister Stoltenberg (Norway) along with the British and Ethiopian leaders were asked by the UN Secretary General, Ban ki-Moon, to act on his behalf in examining proposals to advance the battle against climate change, beyond their existing work on forestry

President Jagdeo and Mexican Secretary for Environment and Natural Resources, Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada met to discuss the Interim REDD Partnership and the upcoming climate conference in Cancun, Mexico

Guyana’s Head of State also met with the Presidents of the Congo and Gabon, who stated their desire to send teams to learn from Guyana’s forest protection model. He also met with France’s Minister of Forest, where they discussed the potential for co-operation between the European Union and South America

EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard said the new agency, and a comprehensive database that will help streamline aid combating deforestation, were tangible results that would build momentum in climate talks ahead of the Cancun summit.

Britain's Prince Charles agreed that transparency was key in brokering a binding global climate agreement."In this period of increased stringency, governments will need to know that every dollar made available will be spent wisely in order to avoid any unnecessary duplication," he said in a speech.

While the $4 billion is only two-thirds of the $6 billion Brazilian Environment Minister Carlos Minc said he hoped would be in place by the Oslo conference, environmentalists said it was a good start for the fledgling program.

"For early phases, the kind of money we're talking about is probably sufficient," said Mark Tercek, the head of U.S. conservation group the Nature Conservancy.

The funding so far comes exclusively from government budgets, and Stoltenberg called for "voluntary contributions" from private sector and industry players. He also said that ultimately "the most important source of money will be carbon pricing" — from carbon trading and carbon taxation schemes.

Oslo agreement on fast-start climate finance ‘historic’ says UNDP’s Helen Clark:
Oslo, 27 May 2010 – The formation of an international partnership to expedite „fast-start‟ finance for forest-related climate mitigation in developing countries was reached here today at a meeting hosted by the Government of Norway.

Robert B. Zoellick, President, World Bank Group:
"It is encouraging to see countries coming together. I want to thank President Sarkozy for convening the forest basin meeting in March and Prime Minister Stoltenberg for organizing today’s conference on the REDD-plus partnership."

African Union, 'New' UK Government and European Union have all given brief presentations. EU speaker detailing their contribution: 220 million Euros ongoing support, 200 million new support through 2013, including call for proposals this year. EU Commission is currently preparing a database regarding this support. She refers to similar initiatives encouraged in the recent meeting in St. Pertersburg, where REDD was seen as a model. Urges that REDD Plus be further agreed as part of Cancun conclusions

Establish a voluntary, publicly available REDD+ Database of REDD+ financing,actions and results, to improve the transparency and coordination of REDD+ actions and support. The Facility Management Team of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility and the UN REDD Programme Team are jointly requested to expeditiously propose a design for the database, in collaboration with Partner countries and other stakeholders, for deliberation at our next Partnership meeting, ensuring continuity with and building on the initial data collection effort launched by Australia, France and Papua New Guinea

Initiate efforts to identify and analyze gaps and overlaps in financing and take steps to address them.

Promote and facilitate cooperation among Partners including South-South partnerships and regional REDD+ networks as well as among multilateral and bilateral REDD+ initiatives. Take the necessary measures to ensure that the REDD+ Partnership is transparent and allows relevant stakeholders to comment in a timely way.

Prepare and agree a detailed forward work program for the Partnership, taking into consideration comments submitted by stakeholders on the interim REDD+ partnership. The program will include the following elements:

► Workshops and formalized information exchanges to share lessons learned and best practices

► Facilitate discussion on the effectiveness of REDD+ initiatives and formulate concrete
recommendations for targeted improvements to multilateral initiatives.

► Proposed schedule of future partnership meetings.

► Determine the duration of the term for the co-chairs as well as specifying their role and method of selection.

► Modalities for stakeholder participation in our efforts (stakeholders are invited to make proposal for
such modalities in advance of the next meeting)

► Development of guidelines and modalities for:

→ The provision of secretariat services for the partnership by the FCPF FMT
and UN-REDD Programme Secretariat, under oversight of the cochairs on
behalf of the partner countries (as described in Section 5); and

→ Determining any specific tasks (as described in section 5) that could be
undertaken by particular countries and other organisations for the Partnership, if agreed by the Partnership.

OTTAWA June 23, 2010— Canada will spend 400 million Canadian dollars (384 million US) to help the world's poorest and most vulnerable nations fight and adapt to climate change, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said Wednesday.

"Through this investment, we are working to help developing countries reduce their emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change," Prentice said.

The funding represents approximately four percent of what industrialized nations, including Canada, pledged in the Copenhagen Accord on climate change reached last December.

The monies are to be used for clean energy development and delivery, efforts to address deforestation and to enhance sustainable agriculture.

The Interim REDD+ Partnership was launched in Oslo on 27 May before United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) talks resumed in Bonn between 31 May and 11 June. Fifty delegates from REDD and donor countries' governments adopted a declaration including the principles and modalities of work of the new Interim REDD+ Partnership initiative. Respect for indigenous peoples' rights and support for the implementation of safeguards still under discussion at the UNFCCC are not among the Partnership's principles, and the process so far has been evidently lacking in terms of transparency and participation.

The Partnership creates a space for governments and institutions engaged in reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) to share information and experiences, and to develop tools to ensure coherence and effectiveness. Papua New Guinea and Japan will initially co-chair the Partnership, followed by Brazil and France in 2011. The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) and UN-REDD will provide secretarial functions.

Respect for indigenous peoples' rights and support for the implementation of safeguards still under discussion at the UNFCCC are not among the Partnership's principles, and the process so far has been evidently lacking in terms of transparency and participation. The Partnership will, allegedly, not undermine progress at the UNFCCC. However, until a climate fund with a REDD facility becomes operational, readiness will happen under the Interim REDD+ Partnership umbrella, formally outside the UN system.

Governments are accelerating the pace: a first technical meeting of the Partnership will take place in Brazil in July, while Nagoya in Japan will host the second official meeting in October parallel to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Conference of the Parties (COP10). In the meantime, no real progress on REDD was registered at the Bonn meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA). The UNFCCC Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) adopted a draft conclusions document on REDD, centered on capacity building for the application of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) methodologies, neglecting UNFCCC COP15 recommendations to develop guidance on the engagement of indigenous peoples in monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV). A 'non-paper' (including text on REDD) was produced by the Ad-hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) chair to foster further negotiations in August and October.

UNITED STATES - $3.2 BILLION. The U.S. contribution to fast-start aid was $1.3 billion for 2010 and President Barack Obama requested $1.9 billion for 2011. The United States is a leading donor in a $3.5 billion plan to protect forests from 2010-12 also funded by Australia, France, Japan, Norway and Britain. For 2010, the State Department says that $448 million goes to helping countries adapt to climate change, $595 million to clean energy and $261 million to "sustainable landscapes."

JAPAN - $15 BILLION. Japan said in Copenhagen it would offer $15 billion in the three years to end-2012, including $11 billion in public money. The total amount includes around 1 trillion yen ($11.87 billion) left over from the "Cool Earth Partnership" initiative under the previous Liberal Democratic Party-led government running from 2008-2012. As of end-April, Japan had spent $5.3 billion for projects in countries including Indonesia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, India, Egypt, Kenya and Nepal. Japan has said it would spend the money "while monitoring developments in global negotiations". A foreign ministry official said it is unlikely to back off from the pledge and will continue to provide funding for developing countries which have backed the Copenhagen Accord and are working for a deal.

CANADA - $377 MILLION. Canada has committed C$400 million ($377 million) as fast-start funds for the 2010-11 fiscal year, Environment Canada said. The funds are additional to those previously considered for climate change programmes before Copenhagen. Future contributions have not been decided.
AUSTRALIA - $504 MILLION. In June, promised 559 million Australian dollars ($504.1 million) to the 2010-12 funds.

EUROPEAN UNION - $9.59 BILLION - In a mid-year review, the European Commission said "the EU is delivering on its fast-start pledge" for 2010 of 2.4 billion euros. For 2010-12, it said 7.55 billion euros ($9.59 billion) had been confirmed.

At that review, member states gave the following examples of projects in developing nations:

GERMANY - 4.2 million euros from 2009-10, to be increased by 10 million in 2010, to help Tonga and Vanuatu improve land use. Also, 2.25 million euros from 2010-13 to Ghana to help micro-insurance projects covering risks of droughts and extreme weather.

FRANCE - Loans to support national climate change action plans -- 185 million euros to Mexico, $800 million for Indonesia, 25 million euros for Vietnam, 125 million euros for Mauritius.

BRITAIN - 50 million sterling ($77.10 million) for Indonesia from 2011-16 to help curb greenhouse gases, partly by managing forests. Of the total, 19 million sterling is fast-start funds.

SPAIN - 45 million euros to the Adaptation Fund, which it says is the first significant contribution by a donor and 36 percent of Spain's pledge for fast-start funds for 2010.

THE NETHERLANDS - 310 million euros for fast-start funds for 2010-12. It says the funds are "new and additional" to overseas aid totalling 0.8 percent of gross national product. Of the cash, it plans to spend 90 million on renewable energy in Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

SWEDEN - Says it is helping countries including Mali. It says it will provide about 800 million euros from 2010-12 for climate aid projects.

FINLAND - Finland's contribution to EU fast-start finance is 110 million euros for 2010-12, an increase over 2009 spending. Projects include forest conservation in Nepal.

EUROPEAN COMMISSION - Says it will provide 50 million euros of fast-start financing per year from 2010-12. In 2010, 25 million euros will be allocated to capacity building related to climate change mitigation, forestry and technology cooperation, and 25 million to actions focusing on adaptation in Ethiopia, Nepal and the Pacific region.

OTHER:

NORWAY - $1 BILLION. Says fast-start funds so far comprise support for slowing deforestation, totalling $1 billion for 2010-12. Other amounts may follow for other activities. Forest projects include in Brazil, Guyana, Indonesia and Tanzania.

SWITZERLAND - $136 MILLION. The government is seeking 140 million Swiss francs ($135.9 million) in fast-start funds. That is about 0.45 percent of $30 billion -- Switzerland's share of greenhouse gas emissions by developed nations is 0.3 percent, but is wealthier than most so can afford more.